Early summer in Pittsburgh
So, we officially moved out of our apartment and into storage.
And traveled to Michigan for a conference
(looks like a conference, right?)
and then to California for a wedding,
(which one got to via steam engine).
We saw some Californian friends and family,
and then landed once again in the greater Wenatchee valley, where we will be for the next six weeks (with a stop in Minnesota pending for the way back to an as-of-yet undisclosed location in Pittsburgh) (just kidding, we'll probably be living near the farm campus of my school, but it's not totally for sure yet).
It's been, well, busy...
(see Eytan napping in a stroller in the Seattle airport)
...which is getting to be a boring thing to say. Some of this might be inherent to this moment in life -- new job, new school, new town, new kids... but some of it is probably just us, i.e. the tendency to do too much (like traveling 5 places "on the way" to Wenatchee, etc.) But I guess (or, evidently) we seem to prefer being a little overextended to not doing the things we think we might otherwise like to.
Although we are not really spending much of the summer in Pittsburgh at all, I've noticed that it seems to wake up a little more when the weather warms up... I suppose a lot of places do. When you walk around now, there are lots of people on the street, sitting outside of restaurants, walking, being out in public -- not on the scale of New York City or anything, but still... And so in the week before we left town, we got to take advantage of going to the first of a summer series of brunch-time concerts in the park, and the almost-first of a food-truck-Monday-dinners-series at the pet store next to our house.
We also were in the process of readjusting to summer in the more humid east. I left a tupperware of muffins on the counter and was surprised (duh) that they molded... a lot... and fast. Mike kept remarking that he thought he was in a jungle, with tons of green viney plant growth all over (I do remember actually the first time I was in a rainforest in Latin America thinking, geez, this looks kind of like the North American humid east, just with different plants). Timber brought home a (dead) rabbit -- I guess that doesn't have anything to do with the humidity but I suppose it means he's up and running again (he's, by the way, staying with some of the students in my program for the summer)...
Recently I've also been coming to realize that Pittsburgh is sort of a "small town" of a city. People talk about "Pittsburgh moments" (when you run into someone you know in a place you didn't think you'd know anyone), which after living in Wenatchee seems normal to me (although
see here, it didn't always seem normal). And people we meet who really like it in Pittsburgh seem to especially like the fact that it feels small and "family friendly" (I'm never sure exactly what that means, presumably that there are parks and a zoo and a children's museum?, but people say it a lot), but it's still a city with lots of city amenities (music and art and sports and whatever else concentrates in cities) -- so, a small town city in the league of cities, even though it's a big city in the league of small towns.
Later summer in Wenatchee
Wenatchee welcomed us with uncharacteristic rain, unusually cool temperatures, and a small earthquake. Nevertheless, we all seem to be adjusting okay. Li'el has not commented much on our change of surroundings, but Eytan is rediscovering getting to walk out the front door without needing to hold a grownup's hand because of traffic. We borrowed a tricycle from a friend here, and he has been super excited about it -- waking up in the morning wanting to "climb bike push"
and to go down the hill where we are staying and "look tractor." This seems to be part of a larger infatuation with all forms of transportation -- trucks and tractors and planes and cars and buses and bikes and motorcycles all qualify.
He is still also a fan of taking care of babies, both the doll version...
(using a carrier)
and the live version
He is also attempting to climb pretty much everything he can,
(yes, he's climbing the steering wheel in a car)
and is talking up a storm. I think one of my favorite words of his right now is "lown," meaning to "lie down." It's efficient, if nothing else. He also has been using "push" to refer to anything moving -- so, yes, we push the stroller, but also, we get in the car and "push," i.e. drive.
Li'el is getting big, and smiling, and talking a bit herself. I don't seem to have a good smile picture right now, so here's a non-smile but still nice one.
So, all that said, here's my question to ponder during our next few weeks in Wenatchee. I seem to be particularly fond of Wenatchee -- and is that just because we lived here for a while and got used to it? or is there something here that's a good match? -- the smaller-than-Pittsburgh small-town-ness of it, the palpable presence of an agricultural economy, some sort of strong sense of place? I'm not sure... and I'm not disregarding the reasons we decided to move away -- they were, and still are, definitely there -- but I like being here, and it makes me wonder about what it is that makes a place feel comfortable, and about where we might want to live down the road, if and when we move again.
So instead of answering these questions, I'll leave you with a few more kiddo pictures instead
